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A Disastrous Affair
A Disastrous Affair is the first episode of ''Line of Duty'' which was first broadcast on the BBC channel, BBC Two on the 26 June 2012. Summary When Steve Arnott is transferred to an anti-corruption unit, he finds his target is the city's top detective, Tony Gates. Can Gates really be as good as he appears? Details A counter-terrorist police raid kills an innocent man Kareem Ali after mistakenly raiding the wrong flat and mistaking his baby sling for a weapon. They were authorised to raid flat 56, but due to a damaged house number raided flat 59 instead. Chief Inspector Osborne orders everyone to lie and say that they warned him to put down the weapon and that he acted aggressively towards them. DS Steve Arnott refuses to take part in a cover-up, even though he himself gave the order to enter the flat and Osborne's continued threats that he'll be finished if he doesn't lie. He is transferred to AC-12, an anti-corruption squad led by Superintendent Ted Hastings. Tony Gates is seen driving his car talking to Jackie Laverty on his mobile phone. They are discussing meeting up. He avoids a marked police car and heads to meet her at the Sunflower Cafe, Kingsgate. They have coffee in a small cafe and discuss that she is busy that evening and won't be able to see him celebrate his be award. They attempt to discreetly hold hands. Gates puts £20 down to pay for breakfast and then sees two men attacking a woman in the street. He runs out and manages to subdue one of them, then he tackles the other guy who is holding a knife. Gates manages to wrestle the knife away from him when the waitress from the cafe turns up and says she's called the police. Gates flashes his police badge and says "They're already here". The waitress then proceeds to give him back his £20 and tells him breakfast is on them. At the event celebrating police achievements, Hastings informs Arnott that his first investigation will focus on DCI Tony Gates, the senior officer of TO-20, a unit of Central Police CID, who has just been made Officer of the Year. Hastings has received a tip-off that Gates has a suspiciously high clearance rate and doesn't believe it's accurate. Gates is surrounded by his all-male team including DS Matthew Cottan, DC Deepak Kapoor and DC Nigel Morton and during the event, we see Gates receive a call and rush out. He appears at Jackie Laverty's house, she is in a state having just hit something with her car, and after having several drinks out with colleagues. Laverty says she thinks it was a dog. Gates tells her that she has nothing to worry about, but she continues fretting as she believes that her neighbours will report it and that she's been drinking and another drink drive conviction will lead to her being imprisoned. Gates repeatedly asks where her car is. She finally admits that because he didn't immediately answer her phone she panicked and reported it stolen. Gates is now left with very few options and decides to stage a burglary. We then see him later crawl into bed with his wife, Jools Gates, having kissed his two daughters, Natalie and Chloe goodnight. We first see DC Kate Fleming, assigned to Central CID, when she is interviewing Alf Butterfield with PC Karen Larkin. He is a resident of The Bog, Moss Heath, and has suffered 3 burglaries this year alone. He has come in hoping for progress but is told that they empathise with his situation but without hard evidence, there is little they can do. Frustrated he gets up to walk out and Kate gives him her card, saying he can call her day or night. Chief Superintendent Derek Derek Hilton calls Fleming into his office to discuss crime statistics. As a divisional commander, he has been tasked with reducing knife crime in his area The file for Gates arrest that morning, which Fleming processed, has both individuals charged with possession of prohibited weapon and assault with a weapon but only one individual actually had a knife. This change to the file would result in a reduction in reported knife crime and Hilton whilst he doesn't outright say to change it, he does strongly suggest that Fleming reconsider the charges. He also discusses Alf Butterfield's complaint, and says that they should down-process anything that won't quickly lead to an offender. We then see the inner workings of TO-20 as lead by Gates. He gets Cottan to read out a summary of a case file and then sticks or twists the case if it sounds good. Gates lists all possible crimes they can associate with the file and then decides if it sounds good enough to proceed. During this Cottan reads out the file of a DOA found beside a road. Gates agrees to pass it to traffic, as it's likely a hit and run, but asks where the body was found. Cottan confirmed it was found in Edge Park, off Millionaires Row, which is where Laverty lives. Despite having sent the case to traffic Gates goes out to the scene to investigate. There is no ID for the DOA and no CCTV or witnesses. Gates immediately meets up with Laverty and tells her that she hit a man, not a dog. Gates tries to persuade her to do the right thing and hand herself in. He doesn't want to be involved in a cover-up. He tells her to tell them she panicked but now she wants to come clean and not to call him. Hastings and Arnott turn up to interview Gates. They bump into Fleming in the corridor and Hastings looks worried when he sees Fleming, and Fleming looks worried when she finds out Arnott is part of AC-12. Hilton advises Gates that AC-12 is investigating him, Gates says that there is nothing to worry about. In the AC-12 interview, Hastings informs Gates that they are investigating that he didn't report the free breakfast he received the morning of mugging. Gates looks bemused at this charge, as Hastings hands him a yellow notice and declines to make any statement. Hastings informed Arnott that this is a ruse so that when the proper investigation on Gates starts he'll think it's just a storm in a teacup. Arnott argues that it is possible that Gates crime statistics are for real and he doesn't see why they should investigate someone who appears to be an exemplary officer. Hastings says that he will lay odds that if it looks too good to be true then the guys a cheat. DS Leah Janson and Rita Bennett are part of Flemings CID team. They sit in the space next to Gates' TO-20 team, so they can hear what is being said. Gates has passed the hit and run to their department, despite them already having a large backlog of unsolved cases. Janson says to give the case to their civilian colleague Bennett. Janson also advises Fleming that Gates has been given a written warning about his team's gender balance, the team is all-male, and Janson believes this means she's a shoe-in for a transfer. Gates is pacing his office looking pensive when he sees Bennett leading Laverty into her office for an interview. Bennett conducts a routine interview regarding Laverty's report that her car was stolen. Which she reported at 10:06 pm the night before it was discovered. Laverty asks if Bennett is a proper police officer, and Bennett advises her that she isn't a police officer but carries out some aspects of police work. Laverty at this points seems to have lost any will to do as Gates asked and confess to the crime, she carries on with the interview. Gates and Laverty meet up at a motorway sliproad and Gates is fed up with her. He says she only looks out for number one. Laverty then says she'll fix it, she'll go to prison if that's what he wants. We see Gates's wife Jools at home with his two daughters. Gates arrives and listens to his daughter playing the piano. Hastings decides to take Arnott out for a few drinks as he's a young fella new in town. The other police officers in there move away when they realise they are both AC-12 officers. Fleming is also in the pub with Janson. When Fleming decides to leave the pub Arnott follows her and tries to build bridges. Fleming lets him know that she's behind Gates 100% and that she believes Arnott is harassing an excellent officer over a forgotten form. Arnott doesn't look particularly convinced he is doing the right thing and continues to look into Gates records. Arnott approached Gates the next morning and tells him that he wants to go after proper criminals, not chase down an officer who forgot to log a gratuity. Gates tells Arnott that Hastings is a zealot and convincing him that Gates is on the level will not be an easy task. Gates goes to Bennett and asks her for the status of the hit and run investigation. She advises him that they are still waiting for identification on the DOA. Gates tells her that should she get anything to go straight to him. Fleming goes to talk to Gates about increases in class A detections on the Bog over the last few days. Gates thanks her for the tip. Fleming lets Gates know she's interested in joining TO-20. Gates tells her it's a bad time with the AC-12 investigation. Fleming says he'll piss all over them and that she wants to join the squad to fight real crime. They banter back and forth as Gates measures her up. He invites her out for a drink with the team to see how they get along. Janson then has a go at Fleming for cutting in front of her to try and join TO-20. Hastings expresses disappointment that Arnott hasn't been able to dig up anything on Gates yet. However, he is happy that someone else on the team has found something. Gates arrives for an interview with DCI Alice Pryor who is his police federation representative. Hastings and Arnott sit down and much to Arnott's shock Hastings advises Gates that the inquiry is widening and he is now being investigated for "laddering" – a process in which a number of different charges are placed on the same defendant to increase an officer's number of successful cases. Hastings issues another yellow notice and Pryor asks for details of his suspension. Hastings confirms there will be no suspension as he is not seen as a threat to his fellow officers or indeed the public in general. Gates now feels betrayed by Arnott and lets him know. Hastings advises Arnott that he's disappointed that he didn't uncover the laddering, that he wasn't even looking for it. Hastings calls him a born AC-12 officer having chosen the moral stand over the personal cost when it came to the shooting incident. Arnott says that it's unfair to have dumped him into an ongoing investigation and not have fully briefed him. Hastings says that Gates got where he is by only picking easy to solve cases and then adding multiple charges on, charges which don't even make it to court. Hastings thinks the only reason Gates has gotten to his level is by playing the system. Arnott suggests that he got to where he is because he had to be twice as good, that victimisation of black officers. Hastings cuts him off and tells him that he doesn't know anything about victimisation. That his first year out he was sent on a job with his fellow Catholic officer, they drove straight over a pipe bomb and Hastings ended up in intensive care and the other officer was buried. The logbook for the job went missing and nothing happened as a result. Hastings feels very strongly that he was victimised due to his religion. Fleming arrives for drinks with the TO-20 team. After some light banter, she seems to fit in well with the boys and they all relax. Hastings decided to bring Arnott in on the identification of the other officer working on the case. Fleming is working undercover to get into TO-20. Arnott realises that she gave them the information on the laddering. Arnott reveals his doubts about the case, and shouldn't they be working on the cases that aren't being investigated. Gates isn't on the take, he's only working the system to improve his stats. Fleming advises that TO-20 get the highest budget, the best kit and ignore any case that isn't going to help them out, she believes that Gates is a special case and wouldn't be risking herself being undercover unless she believed in it. The next day Arnott finds that his car has been broken into in the police parking lot and a surprise has been left for him by TO-20. Morton and Cottan say well if you're going to throw shit at the boss. When Arnott confronts Gates he tells him that "if you take a shot at the King, make sure you kill him, son." Gates assigns TO-20 to investigate in the increased drug use on the Bog estate that Fleming reported to him. They've been given the go-ahead for a surveillance OP on the Bog. Surveillance carried out by Morton and Cottan reveals that two suspected drug dealers are operating out of a derelict house on Greek Lane. One suspect is called Wesley Duke, who is a known cocaine seller. Morton advises that Duke appears to have moved from small time to bigger leagues as he has access to more product. Morton wants to pick up Duke and turn him, but Fleming says it's too risky, what if the Greek Lane Mob find out. Gates agrees and orders further surveillance to see who else is involved. Gates informs Fleming that he is going to go ahead and formally process her transfer to TO-20. Gates goes to Laverty's house to talk to her and advises her that there isn't an update on the investigation into the hit and run. Gates gets up to leave and Laverty kisses him, he's in too deep to leave her now. Arnott starts investigating Gates for laddering and looking at all the cases he's been involved with. Kapoor and Cottan are on surveillance duty at the Greek Lane property when Kapoor receives a call to say that they have been called off surveillance duty early. Cottan says to leave straight away, Kapoor asks if they should wait for the next surveillance team to turn up. Cottan says they've been warned about overtime and should just head out, it'll only be 10 minutes until the next team turn up. The next morning at the same property as the surveillance was being carried out on, the two dealers turn up dead having been tortured. Morton has a go at Cottan for leaving early the night before. Cottan argues it was only 10 minutes, 15 tops that the house was left unwatched. Gates identifies that the fingers were cleanly removed, most likely with a bolt cutter. He charges Morton with finding any cases with similar MOs. Gates theorises that the two dealers who were murdered were the new kids on the block and someone didn't want them muscling into their existing territory. Alf Butterfield returns to the police station, with cuts and bruises on his face. Fleming apologises and is told that he was home when the burglars attacked this time. Hilton interrupts the interview to tell Fleming that Mr Butterfield will likely make a complaint. Fleming argues that Hilton told her to put the case on the back burner, and Hilton chides her and says she was supposed to prioritise. Bennett lets Gates know that there has been a missing person report for Gurjit Patel which matches the DOA in the hit and run case. He was reported missing the day after the hit and run and is an accountant for Laverty Holdings. Laverty Holdings is unsurprisingly owned by Jackie Laverty and she knew Mr Patel. Gates then informs Bennett that his squad will be taking over the investigation. He informs Bennett that it's a very sensitive case and he'll inform county of the match to the missing person, and he'll need her to send him all the files. He insists on moving the files and sends Bennett off to get him tea, whilst he decides what to do. He deletes all links to the identification or Laverty from the file, whilst still logged in as Bennett. Arnott happens to be looking at the case before Gates has deleted the links. Category:Episode Category:Series One